PERUN

Technologies

LARA-100 OVERVIEW
ESSENTIAL INFO ABOUT PERUN'S TECHNOLOGY AND SOLUTIONS
 PERUN Technologies

CONTENTS
1 Introduction to LARA Environment ....................................................................................................... 2
1.1 Why LARA-100?............................................................................................................................. 2
1.2 What is LARA-100? ........................................................................................................................ 3
2 Setting up LARA-100 hardware step by step ......................................................................................... 7
3 PERUN PowerDesk software suite ...................................................................................................... 13
3.1 PERUN PowerDesk Features ....................................................................................................... 13
3.2 PERUN PowerDesk (PPD) Standalone version............................................................................. 16
3.3 Automatic Code Generation ....................................................................................................... 18
4 Power Stage Re-configurations ........................................................................................................... 19
4.1 What are LARA-100 Power Stage topology configurations? ....................................................... 19
4.2 LARA-100 configuration examples .............................................................................................. 20
5 What next? .......................................................................................................................................... 27

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1 INTRODUCTION TO LARA ENVIRONMENT

This document contains a detailed overview of products and solutions designed by PERUN
Technologies. In the continuation of this, first chapter you will find summarized basic ideas and
structure of the PERUN's flagship platform LARA-100.
If you want to get a very brief grasp on LARA-100 without going in depth we advise you to read
chapters 1.1 and 1.2. If you are familiar with basic LARA's concepts and benefits, you can omit these
two headings.
In the Chapter 2 more details about LARA's hardware components are presented, while in the Chapter
3 the focus is set to LARA's software. Chapter 4 explains the concept of LARA's re-configurability.
If you are interested in more detailed technical information and data we advise you kindly to read our
Technical documentation which contains dedicated manuals for hardware and software components.
You can also find these and a lot of other useful info and material on our website http://perun-
power.com/
So, let us start.

1.1 WHY LARA-100?

The vision behind LARA-100 is to serve its users as a sort of a LAunch RAmp for Power Electronics
control development, research and education. It emerged as the comprehensive answer to the
permanent need for flexibility and comfortable performance in the PE laboratory.
So, how LARA-100 serves you? Instead of building and maintaining a new test-bench whenever dealing
with new project or application PERUN brings you LARA-100 platform which can be re-configured and
re-used according to your present needs.
Therefore, LARA-100 is designed to solve the following:
1. It replaces standard inflexible laboratory test benches and their exhausting modifications with
the platform which can be configured to cover a variety of applications (motor drives, active
filters, PV converter, FACTS, as well as to support some larger research projects, e.g. micro-grids
and smart grids).
2. LARA-100 interfaces with popular controllers such as Texas Instruments C2000 series following
the simple plug and play principle
3. User’s control algorithm is tested directly from an intuitive software suite called PERUN Power
Desk (PPD) which facilitates:
 Embedded oscilloscope function which reduces the need for the external oscilloscope
 Supervisory control over the system operation
 Tag Explorer with the on-line access (read and write) to all variables and parameters
defined by a user
 Signal Analysis Desk which processes and analyzes measured results and

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 Control Design Desk which helps user to design the new control algorithm or modify the
existing one

1.2 WHAT IS LARA-100?

The idea behind LARA-100 is very simple and it can be summarized as follows (Figure 1): let us take
one standard, market available power electronics converter and transform it into the open and re-
configurable platform. How are we supposed to do so?

Figure 1: LARA-100 concept - reconfigurable platform to support applications in your focus

Simply, we will employ the industrial converter's power stage and combine it with LARA's PowerBox
which contains:
 LARA's Expansion Boards and
 PERUN PowerDesk software suite.
The role of LARA's Expansion Boards together with the PERUN PowerDesk SW is crucial in the concept
of LARA-100 as the open and configurable platform. The role of Expansion Boards is:
 interfacing with popular controllers such as Texas Instruments C2000 series
 expanding the scope of possible LARA's applications (motor drives, renewables, automotives,
etc)

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 communication with variety of external devices such as encoders, resolvers, PLCs, other LARAs,
etc. through CAN, USB, Ethernet, JTAG and RS485.
LARA-100 Expansion Boards are:
 LARA-100 Motherboard as the main component together with -
 Application Boards
 Communication and
 GPIO Boards.
LARA-100 Motherboard has two main functions: the
first one is to enable easy plug-in of controllers (Texas
Instruments C2000 series) and the second one is to
host other Expansion boards based on plug-in
principle. You might think of it in similar way as of PC
motherboard.
The role of LARA-100 Application Boards (APP
Boards) is to extend the LARA-100 system
functionalities and features related to specific power
electronics applications. There are two main types of

Figure 2: LARA-100 Motherboard Application boards: Motor drive and Grid-Connected.

The first one enables direct interfacing with
incremental/absolute encoders, resolvers or tachogenerators. The second one supports interfaces
with grid voltage lines, photovoltaic (PV) strings, currents measurements, etc. i.e. supports grid-
connected applications.
LARA-100 Communication Boards or simply COMM Boards are compact boards for extension of
LARA-100 system with a variety of standard communication interfaces such as Ethernet, CAN or RS-
485 communication buses. Application note: COMM Boards are ideal solution for expanding LARA-
100 power converters in order to form complex systems such as micro- and smart-grids, where
COMMs are connected with supervisory controllers and several LARAs that stand for different grid
elements.
LARA-100 GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) comes with all sorts of digital and analog input
and output circuitries. Suitable GPIO Board directly interfaces switches, buttons, power relays,
power contactors, power LEDs, meters, or industrial PLCs with LARA-100 system controller.
LARA's software suite PERUN PowerDesk is responsible for
 system configuration
 supervisory control
 data acquisition
 real time access to all controller variables
 analysis of measured signals (real time filtering, Fourier)
 mathematical manipulations over signals in real time
 control design tools (Bode plots, etc.)

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PERUN PowerDesk can be utilized as an integral part of LARA-100 system as described above, but also it
can be employed as an standalone software package. In this scenario a user can develop and test a
control code on Texas Instruments C2000 controller using Perun PowerDesk for all mentioned purposes
except for system configuration (since there is no LARA's hardware). What do you need in this case?
Clearly you need some kind of a docking board to plug in controller and a PC with installed PERUN
PowerDesk. You can use either LARA-100 Motherboard or TI's Experimenter's kit in the role of the
docking board.

Automatic code generation (auto-coding) functionality from Matlab Simulink is supported in PERUN
PowerDesk which makes the process of control design much easier and comfortable. Simply, auto-
coding is here to generate user designed algorithm and with PERUN PowerDesk tools proceeds with
evaluation, testing and re-design.

LARA-100 with its HW and SW components presents well rounded and open re-configurable platform
(Figure 3).
Frequently asked questions related to PERUN PowerDesk software suite:
Can I use PERUN PowerDesk without LARA-100 hardware?
The answer is yes. You can use PPD in a standalone version. In that case you can test and debug your
control code for any kind of application. All you need is Texas Instruments C2000 DSP, a PC with
installed PERUN PowerDesk, a docking board for DSP such as TI’s Experimenter Kit or LARA’s
Motherboard
Can I write a control code directly from PERUN PowerDesk?
The answer is no. The writing of control code is performed with the tool which provides controller
manufacturer , for instance Code Composer Studio if you use Texas Instruments Controller or by using
Simulink editor and TI C2000 Support for Embedded Coder toolbox. The role of PERUN PowerDesk is to
assist you in Comfortable higher level debugging and testing through Tag Explorer, Oscilloscope
function and real time signal manipulations and analysis.
What is the difference between PPD Standalone and version which comes with LARA-100?
Both versions have the same key features (PERUN Tag Explorer, Oscilloscope and Signal Analysis Desk.
The version which comes with LARA has a link to LARA HW and therefore enables supervisory control
of LARA configured in one of required Power Electronics applications
Can I use PERUN PowerDesk with arbitrary (not only LARA's) hardware?
In short, the answer is YES. However, we strongly suggest you contact us in this case. Your custom
hardware has to have appropriate communication and firmware support required by PowerDesk.
Physical communication between your custom hardware and PowerDesk application has to be
established by means of FTDI chip converting UART to USB serial communication protocol. Within
control software of your device (DSP or microcontroller) you have to include PowerDesk
Communication Library (Perun Scope library is a small footprint designed for effortless utilization).
Other options may also be possible. Please contact us to discuss.

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If you are using Texas Instruments small power kits based on C2000 DSP, since they are equipped with
FTDI communication chip, you can use PerunPowerDesk directly, without any additional customization.
User’s controller

PERUN’s Expansion Boards

LARA-100
PERUN PowerDesk SW

Industrial Converter

Figure 3: LARA-100 main components

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2 SETTING UP LARA-100 HARDWARE STEP BY STEP

To understand better LARA-100 system configuration, let us go through setting up LARA-100 step by
step. This simple procedure can be performed by user or PERUN team will do it with a pleasure.
What we need to get ready LARA-100? Well, as Figure 1 suggests, we need three principal parts:
industrial converter (actually its power stage), LARA-100 Power Box (LARA-100 Expansion Boards +
PERUN PowerDesk software suite) and controller. Note that this is not a detailed manual instruction,
but rather convenient anatomical product description which might give you a very good idea about the
LARA-100 system.

Figure 4: LARA-100 system building components: Industrial converter's power stage (left),
LARA-100 Box components (Center) and custom controller in which desired control code is
to be developed (right)
Procedure of assembling LARA-100 will be illustrated now step by step:

STEP 1: Remove the upper mask of the industrial converter and then remove the controller board. So
obtained “empty” upper mask and power stage are shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 5: Original converter's mask without controller stage (left) and converter's power
stage (right)

STEP 2: Plug-in controller (Texas Instruments C2000 series) to the bottom side of LARA-100
Motherboard

Figure 6: Plugging in controller into LARA-100 Motherboard

STEP 3: Mount the LARA-100 Motherboard (with plugged-in controller) to the bottom side of the
converter's mask

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Figure 7: Mounting the LARA-100 Motherboard to the down side of converter's mask (left)
and mask's upper side with Motherboard's connectors visible after mounting
Before going to the next step, let us consider briefly important Motherboard connectors visible now on
the converter's mask (Figure 8).

LARA-100 Comm.
Board Connector
LARA-100 Motherboard
Power Supply Connector
LARA-100 App.
Board Connector
Power Stage
Connector

LARA-100 GPIO
Board Connector

Figure 8: Converter's mask with mounted LARA-100 Motherboard (down side) and its
connectors visible from the upper side

STEP 4: Mount the LARA-100 GPIO Board by plugging in to appropriate GPIO connector on LARA-100
Motherboard

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Figure 9: Plugging-in LARA-100 GPIO Board into appropriate LARA-100 Motherboard

connector

STEP 5: Mount the LARA-100 Application Board

Figure 10: Plugging-in LARA-100 Application Board

STEP 6: Mount the LARA-100 Communication Board

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Figure 11: Plugging-in LARA-100 Communication Board

STEP 7: Connect Power stage and power supply to LARA-100 Motherboard connectors and mount the
mask to the power stage

Figure 12: Connecting converter's Power Stage and power supply with motherboard,
mounting mask to the power stage (left) and LARA-100 mounted (right)

LARA-100 is now ready to be employed in control development. If we want for instance to use it for
motor drive research, we will go through steps explained above, where in the step 5 appropriate
Application Board will be mounted to support for instance encoder/resolver measurements.
The LARA package which is specialized for motor drive applications is called LARA-100 Motor Drive Box
or LARA MD Box. The structure of this box is depicted on the Figure 4 (center), where the Application
board is dedicated for motor drive control development (MD Application Board). However, if we want
to research and develop control in grid-connected applications such as photovoltaics, active filters,
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FACTS, active-grids etc, we will switch MD Application Board with GCC Application Board. LARA
package which is specialized for grid-connected applications is called LARA-100 GCC Box. Finally, if we
want to cover both MD and GCC applications, PERUN Technologies prepared LARA-100 Power Box
which includes both application board types (MD and GCC). Of course, if you have one box, let say
LARA-100 MD and you would like to go for grid-connected research, you need to obtain only a new
LARA-100 GCC board. Other expansion boards such as Motherboard, Communication and GPIO Board
do not change except you want some additional specific communication protocol or customizations of
your standard package. Therefore, combining Expansion Boards, the real hardware setup needed for
dedicated control research is ready within minutes.
One basic LARA configuration for motor drive research is presented by Figure 13. LARA-100 is
connected via USB cable (left) to PC with installed PERUN PowerDesk software suite. An induction
machine is connected to LARA-100.

Figure 13: Connecting LARA-100 with PC through USB cable (left) and assembled setup for
motor drive research (right)

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3 PERUN POWERDESK SOFTWARE SUITE

In the previous chapter we assembled successfully one LARA-100 setup in few steps. Let us explore
here how software side of LARA-100 solution called PERUN PowerDesk (shorter PPD) can be of great
service.
As mentioned in the chapter 1.1, PPD solution is in-depth debugging, profiling, monitoring and remote
supervision of any DSP-driven process or device. It provides a plethora of functionalities. PPD can be
used as an advanced digital oscilloscope while providing a direct access to device memory and code-
defined variables. It incorporates a powerful signal processing and data visualization components. By
means of PowerDesk, it is possible to access LARA-100 devices directly from higher-level programming
languages, like Python, or by means of popular data analysis and simulation platforms, like
MATLAB/Simulink.

3.1 PERUN POWERDESK FEATURES

You can find here a brief description of main PPD functionalities. For more details, please refer to
dedicated manuals. Main PPD features are: PPD Integrated scope, Tag Explorer, Signal Processing and
Analysis and Real-Time Data Acquisition.
Real-Time Data Acquisition
Signal Processing
and Analysis

PPD Integrated Scope

Tag explorer

Figure 14: PERUN PowerDesk overview

Other features are: Project Explorer, Diagnostic pane, supervision controls etc.

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PPD Integrated Scope

PPD Integrated Scope, or simply Scope is the main visualization tool of PERUN PowerDesk. Its primary
purpose is to enable access to live signals and spectra, allowing our users to see and process signal
waveforms as they arrive, and with the sampling period of the undelying LARA-100 hardware.
Several scope types are available in PowerDesk. For example: Signal Scopes are specifically designed
for visualization of time-dependent signals; Spectrum Scopes tailored for frequency-dependent
quantities, such as spectra, XY Scopes are used to visualize relative dynamics of two or more time-
dependent signals.

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Figure 15: PPD Signal Scope

Tag Explorer
TagExplorer is used to access individual variables inside controller memory of one or several LARA-100
devices. Variables are accessed by name, and the corresponding address and data-type information are
extracted based on the appropriate compiler generated file.

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Figure 16: Tag Explorer

Signal Processing and Analysis

 Some of the processing and analysis tools supported within PERUN PowerDesk are:
 Defining custom signals from mathematical expressions
 Performing point-wise transformations of signals
 Performing point-wise operations on a pair of signals
 Filtering signals
 Performing Spectral Analysis

Figure 17: An example of spectra analysis - FFT and Bode Plot

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Real-Time Data Acquisition

This functionality supports most features usually encountered in digital oscilloscopes, including
selection of sample-time, decimation and triggering. A very important feature is enabling processing of
live signals. What this means is that a user can define signal transformations, filtering, computation of
spectra, etc. directly on analog channels transferred from the underlying control device. As soon as
waveforms associated with these channels change, the change will be reflected on all dependent
signals, for example those obtained by filtering, as well as on the computed spectra.

Figure 18: Real Time Data Acquisition window

3.2 PERUN POWERDESK (PPD) STANDALONE VERSION

Important characteristic of PERUN Power Desk is that it can be employed independently from full scale
LARA-100 hardware stack. When and for which purpose should you consider to use a standalone
version?
The main strength of PERUN PowerDesk is that it significantly increases the ability to test and debug
control code you want to develop. Apart from enabling direct access to memory of your controller, and
providing oscilloscope functionality, PowerDesk software allows you to access a rich set of signal
analysis tools, without affecting and cluttering control code itself.
Imagine you have several ill-behaving measurements in a strict real-time application, with low
computation time margin. For example, these may be line currents and voltages. The control application
you are developing must ensure that the total active power remains constant, with low influence of
higher order harmonics. PowerDesk enables you to filter the measurements by means of different types
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of available low-pass filters, to compute the power by algebraic manipulations of the obtained
quantities, to compute the spectrum, if needed, and plot a selection of the results on several plots.
Some of the computations may be rather complicated, time and memory consuming. If you already
streatched the limits of your controller too far, it would be impossible to perform the on-line. Even if
your margin is more slack, the introduced modifications could alter the behavior of your control loops,
by affecting timings and task scheduling.
By using PowerDesk, all computations are transferred to the PC side. Your control code remains
unaffected.
Does your controller includes an elaborate state-machine? Are you interested in process behavior
during state transients? Are you interested in behavior of derived variables not directly available for
measurements? If the answer is YES, then PERUN PowerDesk is a right tool for you. Even if you are not
interested in using the entire LARA-100 technology stack.
Finally, let us explain what do you need to provide in order to employ PERUN PowerDesk (except for
PERUN PowerDesk itself). Essentially, you need to have an interface board for interfacing Texas
Instruments DSP and this interface board should host FTDI communication chip. Two obvious choices
appear:
 LARA-100's Motherboard or
 Texas Instruments' Experimenter Kit
Both solutions provide smooth interfacing between controller and PERUN PowerDesk software suite for
its standalone operation.
Plainly speaking, PPD provides real time signal processing, mathematical manipulations, displaying and
visualization of any group of signals conceived in microcontroller/DSP and procured to PC via FTDI chip.
As such it might be for instance in the role of an extremely convenient extension to Texas Instruments
Code Composer Studio. Furthermore it is completely independent of control code purpose (motor
drives, grid-connected, non-electrical processes...) as soon as you feed it with signals through FTDI.
Following the PPD standalone line of thinking we can easily detect one additional PPD application.
Namely, PPD can be used for real-time simulation of required processes (motor drives, active filters but
generally any kind of process we have a model for). In that case, the process model and control code are
implemented in DSP, while PPD provides real time signal manipulations and displaying as mentioned.
However we would like to emphasize that PPD is not emulation or simulation tool. It can be employed
as such as a result of its flexibility and modular design.
If you want to learn more about PPD standalone possibilities through one interesting example of DC
motor, please refer to the document. We could provide you with the dedicated example accompanied
with this document which gives you a very good possibility of general evaluation of PERUN PowerDesk
software suite.

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3.3 AUTOMATIC CODE GENERATION

LARA-100 platform embraces Matlab Simulink's automatic code generation (auto-coding). The modus
operandi can be summarized as follows:
 employ your Simulink control design (maybe previously developed for the purpose of
simulation and now you would like to use it for the testing on real hardware).
 run it on controller (Texas Instruments C2000 series) using autocoding functionality which
automatically "translates" Simulink blocks into C code
 run your control design on real hardware configured to stand for dedicated converter type (here
boost converter and three-phase inverter) employing LARA-100 hardware
 test, re-design and verify control algorithm employing PERUN PowerDesk software suite with its
oscilloscope functionality, real time signal analysis and control design tools.

Such scenario combines flexibility of Simulink control design with LARA-100 hardware configurability
and PERUN PowerDesk functions for real time signal processing, analysis and control design.
Descriptively speaking, you may think of such approach as of extending the Simulink flexibility to the
real hardware thanks to LARA's configurable nature. Furthermore, PERUN PowerDesk offers a broader
frame for system integration while bringing its own powerful tools for comfortable testing and high-
level control design.
LARA-100 system with its hardware part (configurable power converter) and software part (PERUN
PowerDesk) is entirely independent from Simulink and Matlab. It depends on user's preference
whether Simulink or Texas Instruments' Code Composer will be employed for low-level control design.

PERUN PowerDesk

Simulink model

autocoding

LARA-100
download Motherboard

C-code
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4 POWER STAGE RE-CONFIGURATIONS

The important ARA concept is that it can support a variety of applications, i.e. it can be (re)configured
to stand for different Power Electronics devices.
What we mean saying that the LARA-100 power stage is configurable or re-configurable? There are two
points.
Firstly, by providing access to all relevant power nods, LARA-100 power stage can be utilized in a
variety of applications, such as 1ph or 3ph motor drives (induction machine, PMSM), grid-connected
converter (STATCOM, active filters, active front – end converter, active grids, etc) as well as DC
applications such as photovoltaic boost converter, separately excited DC motor drive, etc. In that way
one LARA-100 or several LARA-100 units are configured to represent the application of interest.
Secondly, LARA-100 can be configured within the power range of 0.25 kVA to over 100 kVA to support
application specific functionality such as motor speed measurement by means of encoder, resolver or
tacho-generator, grid voltages and current measurements in GCC topologies, communication protocols
between LARA-100 platform and external devices (PC, PLC...), additional general purpose analog and
digital I/Os. This is achieved by LARA-100 Expansion Boards.
In this chapter we will focus primarily to explain the first re-configurability type, while the second point
was illustrated in the chapter 2.

4.1 WHAT ARE LARA-100 POWER STAGE TOPOLOGY

CONFIGURATIONS?
In order to support different applications, the LARA-100 power stage (FIGURE 4, left) must operate in
the same way as different converters such as single-phase and three-phase inverter, buck, chopper,
boost, etc. In other words, LARA-100 has to be configured to work as any of these converter topologies.
How we should achieve this? To answer this question let us take a look on LARA-100 Power Stage
electrical scheme (bellow).

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PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
Pre-charging
D1 D2 D3 circuit I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T4 T5 T6 W

D4 D5 D6

N RB
Three-phase DC bus Braking Three-phase
rectifier chopper inverter
Figure 19: The LARA-100 power stage electrical scheme: main components, measured signals
and accessible power terminals
As mentioned before, LARA-100 Power Stage is actually a power stage of an industrial converter with
its three-phase rectifier, pre-charging circuit, DC bus, braking chopper and three-phase inverter.
Accessible power terminals (Figure 20) are: R, S, T, PD, P, N, RB, U, V, W.

R S T PD P N RB U V W
Figure 20: Accessible LARA-100 power stage terminals
Manipulation with this very power nodes enables configuring LARA-100 in various converter topologies,
as it will be demonstrated a bit later. The power stage interface originally provides us with the
following measurements: inverter currents IU, IV, IW, DC bus voltage UDC and temperature temp (given
in red). Additional measurements are provided through LARA's Expansion Boards. However, for the
time being, we will focus on explaining one of the key points: How to configure LARA-100 to make it
operate as a converter we want?
We will answer to this question by demonstrating the solutions for several characteristic cases.
Note that the following examples are not detailed instructions for operation. The intention here is just
to provide you basic ideas how to configure and re-configure the same LARA-100 to emulate various
power converters.

4.2 LARA-100 CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES

We will start from easier examples which might be interesting to students from undergraduate courses
and will move to topologies of interest for researchers and Power Electronics control development
engineers.

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SINGLE - PHASE RECTIFIER

To emulate this basic topology, two power terminals
R P out of R,S and T, say R and S (Figure 21) have to be
connected to the source of 1-phase AC voltage. Pre-
1ph~ charging circuit has been included for the sake of
smooth DC bus charging. Thyristor Th will bypass the
pre-charging resistor Rp upon receiving appropriate
S N gate signal. This signal can be generated from LARA-
100 Motherboard.
Terminals PD and P are short-circuited although, a user can connect there an additional resistor or
inductance. The user can connect DC load between terminals P and N.
PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
Rp
D1 D2 D3 I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T4 T5 T6 W

D4 D5 D6

N RB

Figure 21: Electrical scheme of LARA-100 power stage configured as a single-phase rectifier
The next example is very similar to the first one.

THREE- PHASE RECTIFIER

P In this case all three power terminals: R, S and T (Error!

R eference source not found.) are connected to the three-
phase AC voltage source. Pre-charging circuit has been
S included for the purpose of smooth DC bus charging as
explained in the previous example. The user can connect
T DC load between terminals P and N
N

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PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
Rp
D1 D2 D3 I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T4 T5 T6 W

D4 D5 D6

N RB

Figure 22: Electrical scheme of LARA-100 power stage configured as a three-phase rectifier

BOOST CONVERTER

U P To obtain a boost operation mode from LARA-100

power stage, we can use any inverter leg, say the
left one: T1-T4 (Figure 23) where we employ only
the lower IGBT T4 in combination with the free-
wheel diode of the upper IGBT T1. The input DC
N N voltage is connected between terminals U and N,
while the output DC load should be connected
between terminals P and N.
Note that we could use equally one of terminals V and W including braking chopper terminal RB to
achieve a single boost topology. For this simple example we will stick to the terminal U.
So, at the terminal U boost DC inductance should be connected in series. Between P and N we have
already placed capacitor from DC bus which is sufficient for all practical boost operation purposes.
Terminals PD and P may or may not be short-circuited which is irrelevant for the boost mode. Of course
no voltage should be supplied to R, S and T terminals.
Boost input current IU, output voltage UDC and converter temperature temp are measured through
the power stage interface and LARA's Motherboard. Additional measurements can be provided from
LARA's Application Board.
Note that the boost could be emulated employing any inverter's leg including the braking chopper.

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PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
D1 D2 D3 I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T4 T5 T6 W

D4 D5 D6

N RB

Figure 23: Electrical scheme of LARA-100 power stage configured as a boost converter
Boost control is achieved through controller, such as TMS320F28335 which supplies gate drive signals
to the power stage via LARA-100 Motherboard.

INTERLEAVED BOOST
U
V LARA-100 power stage can be configured to
W emulate the following interleaved boost
RB P
topologies: 2 phase, 3 phase and 4 phase. To
E1 E2 E3 E4
emulate 2 phase interleaved topology, we will
connect boost input inductances with two
terminals out of four: U, V, W or RB. Note that
N
we can use breaking chopper (RB terminal) as
the boost stage (phase).
The maximal number of phases is 4 which is illustrated by Figure 24. Interleaved output voltage (UDC)
temperature (temp) and currents of the first three boost phases U, V and W are measured through
power stage interface and LARA-100 Motherboard, while other measurements of interest, such as the
fourth phase current and input voltages could be procured through LARA's Application Board.
Boost control is achieved through controller (e.g. TMS320F28335) which supplies gate drive signals to
IGBTs T4, T5, T6 and T7 through LARA's Motherboard.

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PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
D1 D2 D3 I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T7 T4 T5 T6 W
RB
D4 D5 D6

N
Figure 24: Electrical scheme of LARA-100 power stage configured as a 4-phase interleaved
boost

FOUR-QUADRANT CHOPER

P U LARA-100 power stage can be easily configured to operate in

the regime of the 4-quandrant chopper. Obviously, for this
purpose, we can employ any 2 of three inverter's legs.
Therefore, let us connect terminals U and V to the chopper's
load and terminals P and N to the chopper's input which can be
battery or DC bus as shown by the Figure 25. The DC bus could
N V be supplied from the diode rectifier (single or three phase), but
this very details about chopper's input are not here in the
focus.
Measurements of the output current, temperature and input voltage are provided through the power
stage interface and LARA-100 Motherboard, while other measurements of interest, could be obtained
through LARA's Application Board.

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PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
D1 D2 D3 I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T4 T5 T6 W

D4 D5 D6

Figure 25: Electrical scheme of LARA-100 power stage configured as a 4-quadrant chopper

ONE-QUADRANT and TWO-QUADRANT CHOPPER

P U Similarly to the previous example, LARA-100 can be

configured to emulate one and two-quadrant chopper
DC/DC converter. For that purpose one LARA's power
stage leg has been employed. Note that for achieving one-
quadrant chopper, (Figure 26) we need the lower IGBT
and upper free-wheel diode, while the load is connected
N N between the phase terminal, say U and terminal P.
In order to achieve two-quadrant chopper operation we need the whole leg, including the upper IGBT
(in orange). In this case, the load is connected between terminals U and N. The input voltage could be
provided from a battery or power stage's DC bus. Measurements of the output current, temperature
and input voltage are provided through the power stage interface and LARA-100 Motherboard, while
other measurements of interest, could be obtained through LARA's Application Board.
PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
D1 D2 D3 I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T4 T5 T6 W

D4 D5 D6

Figure 26: Electrical scheme of LARA-100 power stage configured as a 1-quadrant and 2-
quadrant (orange) chopper
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THREE-PHASE INVERTER

RB This is a standard topology and will not be discussed in more

details. Obviously, the outputs, whether it is a load (e.g.
P motor) or source (electrical grid) are connected to power
U terminals U, V, W, while the input DC bus voltage is connected
between terminals P and N (Figure 27). All three output
V currents, DC bus voltage and converter temperature are
measured through converter's interface and provided to
W controller stage via LARA's Motherboard.
N

Here braking chopper (terminal RB in orange) may or may not be employed.

PD P temp
Th

T1 T2 T3
D1 D2 D3 I U I V IW

R U
S UDC V
T T4 T5 T6 W

D4 D5 D6

N RB
Figure 27: Electrical scheme of LARA-100 power stage configured as three-phase inverter

MORE COMPLEX CONFIGURATIONS

If we want to achieve complex topologies, for instance a back-to-back converter, two LARA-100 power
stages can be combined.
Please contact us for more topologies and options.

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5 WHAT NEXT?
Dear reader, weather you consider or not to employ PERUN Technologies solutions in your Power
Electronics control development, research or education, we would be very honored and grateful for
your kind feedback and your first impressions. Your contribution could help us decisively to improve
our technology to serve better in our joint mission for energy healthier and safer world. We are
sincerely open for all your comments, suggestions and advices.

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